Civilians credited with helping nab bank robbery suspects

CORAL SPRINGS — A bank manager, a customer, a deliveryman and several motorists are being praised for helping officers and agents apprehend three violent bank robbery suspects Wednesday.

"It was almost something out of a movie with how good it worked, with people calling, officers responding, officers locating [the suspects], other agencies getting involved, and it was incredible," Coral Springs Police Sgt. Joe McHugh said. "Nobody got hurt, bad guys were all taken into custody, minor injuries to the people involved … but it could have turned out a lot worse. "

It started at SunTrust Bank, 9501 Wiles Road, around 10 a.m., police said.

The bank manager was on the phone with a customer when two armed men burst into the bank. One of the robbers pointed a gun at a teller's face and demanded money, McHugh said.

The FBI said the robbers took an undisclosed amount of cash and left without hurting anyone.

The two men fled with a third in a Nissan Sentra that had been stolen from Miami Gardens, Mertes said.

A UPS driver saw the men abandon the Nissan in the Pine Ridge Square shopping plaza on Wiles Road east of North University Drive, Mertes said.

They caught the UPS driver's attention because they left the Nissan's doors open and hurriedly jumped into a silver Dodge Charger, police said.

"The UPS driver thought that was suspicious and called in a description of the Dodge to 911," Mertes said. "One of our officers spotted the car on the Sawgrass and started chasing it to Miami."

The Charger was pursued about 38 miles south along the Sawgrass Expressway and Interstate 75, then east along the Gratigny Parkway in Miami-Dade County, where it crashed into two cars near the Northwest 32nd Avenue exit, the FBI said.

Derek Mendez, 33, of Hialeah, was in one of those cars. He was on his way to a Crime Scene Investigation course at Miami Dade College when he found himself in the middle of a crime scene investigation.

The Iraq war veteran suffered injuries to his back, neck and right elbow when his Nissan was rear-ended by the speeding Charger.

"It freaked me out a little bit but it could have been worse," Mendez said. "They could have had a gun and start shooting and I could have been in the middle of that."

Three men bailed out of the Charger and two were quickly taken into custody. The third ran but eventually surrendered.

The entire incident was all over in 45 minutes.

"I remember some guys getting out of the car and fleeing from the scene," Mendez said. "They tried to run away and tried to jump a fence and I saw the cops grab them."

The eastbound lanes of the Gratigny were closed at Northwest 42nd Avenue while police and the FBI investigated the crash scene.

One of the men who will be charged in the robbery and chase was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital for treatment, and a responding officer received a minor injury, the FBI said. Mendez went to the Veterans Administration hospital in Miami for X-rays.

Multiple agencies participated in the chase through Broward and Miami-Dade counties, including police from Coral Springs, Miami Dade, Hialeah, Miramar, Miami Gardens and Opa-locka; the Broward Sheriff's Office and the FBI.

Coral Springs Police, the South Florida Violent Crime Task Force and the FBI are continuing their investigation.

It's the kind of backup Coral Springs Police have been seeking from the public through their "Make a Call, Make a Difference" campaign, McHugh said.

"This is just one instance where it has paid off for us," he said. "We got three violent people off the street because the UPS guy made a call and made a difference."

Mertes praised the UPS driver for "an excellent job in notifying suspicious activity and calling it in right away. It was good police work and coordination with the citizen, the bank manager and the UPS driver."

The FBI did not reveal the identities of the suspects or the civilians Wednesday. The agency said the three men were suspected in five other bank robberies in Broward.